4.MEASON

LONG time ago the Fairy Queen thought she would go about to see how all the fairies who live in floods, rivers, streams, and fountains were getting on since the last hundred years, for it is only once in a century that her Majesty can take such a survey of her subjects. After travelling a long time, scolding some fairies who had got into mischief,

A

and praising others who had behaved well, the Queen came at length to an old, old forest which grew on the very top of a rocky mountain, and where the trees were so large and the shade was so thick that it was all green within. Indeed it was so green a place, so dark and so cool, that people were afraid of it, and kept aloof. But the Fairy Queen was afraid of nothing; moreover she had particular business in that forest. She wanted to see a little fairy who was only three days old, and to whom the fountain of the forest had been given by her mother. The Queen found the little Fairy all alone by her fountain. It was a beautiful fountain; the water was as clear as clear could be; it came sparkling out of a rock, leaped down other rocks, then ran away and hid itself in the moss. It looked quite a merry sort of fountain, and the little Fairy to whom it belonged looked every bit as merry; for when the Queen came upon her, she was dancing in the shade and singing to herself in a sweet clear voice, because you see fairies can talk, just as they can run about, as soon as they are born.

The Queen of the Fairies has no children of her own, but she is very fond of little children, and she always

thinks the last baby she sees the prettiest. She thought so of this young Fairy, who was really a pretty creature, for she had golden hair, blue eyes, and rosy cheeks, and her mother, knowing the Queen was coming, had dressed her out in a little frock of silver tissue, shot with green and blue.

"Well, my dear," graciously said the Queen of the Fairies to this young thing, "do you know who I am?" "Oh yes," answered the little Fairy, "you are her Majesty."

"What a clever child you are," said the Queen, quite pleased; "and who are you?"

"Please your Majesty, I am the little Fairy of the little Fountain."

"My dear, you could not have answered me better; and now what gift will you have from me, my love?"

"Pearls," answered the little Fairy.

"Then pearls you shall have," said the Queen, "as many as ever you can wish for. Your fountain shall be all pearls, and you may do what you like with them; but you will have to count them, every one."

"I shall like that," answered the little Fairy, "for no one must ever take so much as one of my pearls."

"Well," said the Queen, "if you mean to keep your pearls to yourself, you must live here all alone, and never go out."

"I shall like that, too," said the little Fairy, "for I shall sing to myself, and play with my pearls; and, please your Majesty, may I be called the Fairy of the Pearl Fountain."

The Queen let her have that also, then went her way. The Fairy of the Pearl Fountain remained in the forest, and lived there till she grew up to be the loveliest young Fairy that had ever been seen. She had a white marble basin, made for the water of her fountain to fall into, and the most beautiful wild flowers set in the green moss around it. The water sprang up in a jet from the centre of the basin, and the delight of the Fairy was to stand in the very middle of it, clothed in her robe of silver tissue, shot with green and blue, for it was not a frock now that she was grown up, and to throw the water up ever so high, till it reached the sunshine; and every drop of water she threw up was a pearl when it came down again a beautiful white pearl. Some were big pearls and some were little ones, and the bottom of the marble basin was covered with them. Indeed, there

were so many that the Fairy was obliged to let the smallest trickle away every night through a little slit in the basin; for if she had not done so, it would have overflowed. So the pearls slipped away, and rolled down the rocks on the mountain-side, but no one minded them, or if some passer-by did see them by chance, why he thought he saw drops of water and no more. Though she had so many pearls the young Fairy never thought she had too many, and all her delight was to adorn herself with them. She strung the largest and the clearest on a thread of gold, and mixed it up in her hair, and she made a necklace of more, and bracelets for her wrists, and a waist-band, and the hem of her silver tissue robe was all studded with pearls; and there was not another fairy who had so many. She counted them every one as the Queen had ordered her, and when she laid herself down on the moss at night she still counted them in her sleep. Indeed, she was so fond of her pearls, and so jealous of them, that she never left her fountain lest any one should come and steal them whilst she was away.

This lasted a long time; till one day the Fairy, finding that no one ever came near the place, and wish